belle movie review

‘Belle’ Review: A Feminist Beauty and the Beast Fable for the Digital Era

Anime master Mamoru Hosoda imagines another forward-thinking virtual world, “U,” using it as the backdrop for an empowering musical fairy-tale.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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With “ Belle ,” anime master Mamoru Hosoda has reimagined “Beauty and the Beast” for the metaverse set — that young generation of social media users who switch identities comfortably between the physical world and a more inviting online one.

Roughly half the movie takes place in the “real world” (which is to say, a traditional cartoon rendering of modern-day Japan, where hand-drawn teenagers worry about who’s popular at school and how to get noticed by the classmates they find cute), while the fairy-tale portion is set on an ultra-popular virtual platform called “U,” where the main character appears as a slender pink Disney princess type: Belle.

In U, members assume an alternate identity/avatar (or “AS”) that allows them to more fully express certain dimensions of their personalities. Here, Hosoda appears to have tapped into a central anxiety of modern adolescence: the concern that others could never truly know or accept all of one’s nuances and contradictions, just as in nearly every telling of this classic story, only Belle can see the goodness in the Beast.

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For more than 20 years, Hosoda has been refining a vision of the way that virtual realms extend, enhance and complicate modern life — from the Digital Realm depicted in his two “Digimon Adventure” movies to the stark white Oz of “Summer Wars.” Visually complex as those iterations were, nothing compares to U, as Hosoda packs an Imax-worthy level of detail into his depiction of a vast parallel world/playground, which looks like a cross between a noir-and-neon “Matrix”-like megacity and a dust mote’s view of a PC motherboard, where chips loom like skyscrapers in the background.

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Populated by some 5 billion registered users, U promises that once people have plugged into their devices, pesky restrictions such as gravity need not apply, and everyone is free to be themselves. (Fine, but what do people actually do in U? The concept suggests more questions than it can answer, relying on a “don’t ask, just go with it” style of storytelling.)

Before joining U, Suzu is a relatively introverted high school student. Much is made of the fact she has freckles, which become a defining aspect of her AS — a row of bright fuchsia triangles imprinted across her cheeks, like some kind of trend-setting makeup. Shy and emotionally scarred from the loss of her mother several years earlier, Suzu lives way out in the sticks, far from her classmates, and spends much of her time alone or else fumbling awkwardly around the few friends she has at school (which include computer-whiz Hiroka and protective male comrade Shinobu). Flashbacks show her making music with her mother, though even the thought of singing makes her physically ill these days — which is one of the many liberating aspects of this new technology for Suzu.

From the moment she arrives in U, she’s able to express herself through song. “Belle” isn’t a musical in the traditional sense, although Hosoda gives the character multiple opportunities to belt out ethereal emotional anthems, casting Japanese singer-songwriter Kaho Nakamura to handle both speaking and performing aspects of the role. (For the English dub, virtual unknown Kylie McNeill proves just as stunning — especially considering the gifted vocalist has fewer than 500 Instagram followers at the moment.) Hosoda wanted a fresh, unique sound, and though Belle eventually becomes the most popular personality in U, her virtual peers don’t know what to make of her inaugural performance, sniping from the sidelines. “I can’t stand show-offs,” grouses one. “She’s not ugly, but…” huffs another.

As with many a viral sensation before her, it takes time for people to discover Belle’s talents, and once they do, the messaging is mixed. Some adore her, others are downright jealous or cruel, but practically everyone wants to know who her true identity: the real you behind the U front. Remember, Suzu can’t even bring herself to sing karaoke, but through Belle, she’s able to unleash the voice that’s been bottled up insider her. And just as Belle is about to give her first massive arena concert, the show is interrupted by the arrival of the Beast, an aggressive, wolf-headed character who represents the bad-boy antithesis to Belle’s delicate pop princess (whose Disney-esque look was designed and overseen by Jin Kim, a veteran of the American animation studio).

In U, the Beast easily manages to terrorize everyone — everyone except for Belle, who responds with curiosity and compassion. Oddly enough, the Beast seems to be the only user who dares misbehave in this environment, which, if it were anything like Facebook or Fortnite, would be a lot more familiar with people acting out behind the shield of anonymity. No matter. Together with best friend Hiroka, Belle determines to identify who this seemingly misunderstood rebel really is. Storywise, it probably would’ve been more efficient for the Beast simply to have kidnapped Belle as he tries to make his escape (at least that way, the two characters would’ve been forced together early), but Hosoda seems committed to making Suzu a strong, proactive protagonist, leading the movie on a long tangent full of dead ends and red herrings as she and Hiroka go about their investigation.

“Belle” works best when our attention is on its title character, less so when the story shifts back to Suzu. The most iconic scene occurs midway through, when Belle finds and embraces her beast, singing “Lend Me Your Voice” as he temporarily drops the tough-guy act in her presence. But there’s still another hour to navigate, as Suzu and company gather around computer monitors, zooming in on details (like a glimpse of Belle reflected in the eyeball of a kid they hear humming that private song) and trying to untangle a puzzle that becomes less and less interesting as the source of the Beast’s temper comes into focus.

Hosoda has created an infinite-possibility universe in which to set this tale, and the at times convoluted story can’t help feeling limiting as our imaginations tease all the stuff being ignored in U’s more intriguing corners. Still, there’s something undeniably empowering in the way U (and by extension Hosoda) recognizes the inner strengths in people who themselves don’t fully understand what they’re capable of. Belle’s big moment — when she risks being “unveiled” (having her identity revealed) in order to reconnect with whoever’s hiding behind the Beast’s monstrous AS — feels like a scene destined for anime history. In a sense, movies aren’t so different from the virtual worlds a platform like U offers, and this one promises a special kind of escapism while going out of its way to keep it real.

Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival, July 12, 2021. (Also in Animation Is Film Festival.) MPAA Rating: PG. Running time: 121 MIN. (Original title: “Ryû to sobakasu no hime”)

• Production: (Animated – Japan) A GKIDS (in U.S.), Toho (in Japan) release of a Studio Chizu production. Producers: Yuichiro Saito, Genki Kawamura, Nozomu Takahashi. Executive producers: Keiichi Sawa, Kyo Ito, Nobuaki Tanaka, Takeshi Kikuchi, Yuka Saito. Animation producer: Hiroyuki Ishiguro.
• Crew: Director, screenplay: Mamoru Hosoda. Camera: Ryo Horibe, Manabu Kadouno, Yohei Shimozawa. Editor: Shigeru Nishiyama. Music: Ludvig Forssell, Yuta Bandoh, Miho Hazama. Animation director: Hiroyuki Aoyama.
• With: Voice cast (English dub): Kylie McNeill, Chace Crawford, Paul Castro Jr., Manny Jacinto, Hunter Schafer, Brandon Engman, Jessica DiCicco.

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Belle Review

More beastly than beauty..

Belle debuts in theaters on Jan. 14.

Academy Award-nominated Japanese director and animator Mamoru Hosoda is responsible for some deeply touching anime films: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, and Wolf Children are widely considered to be some of his best, as is his work with the Digimon franchise. Hosoda returns with his ninth feature film, Belle, an interpretation of the classic tale of Beauty and the Beast. Its heart is in the right place, and it is stunningly animated, but its message is dragged down a bit by some plot holes and a bloated runtime.

Belle follows 17-year-old Suzu Naito (Kylie McNeill), who lost her mother at a young age in an accident. As a result, the already modest and shy teen has found it difficult to relate to others and has become withdrawn, having lost her ability to sing in front of others the way she used to.

Top 10 Most Anticipated New Anime of 2022

Everything changes when Suzu reluctantly joins the virtual world of "U", a metaverse-like online community of over 5 million users, in which you can "start over" as a new person. When logging in for the first time, U generates a jaw-droppingly beautiful pink-haired avatar for her that she can hardly believe is her. She nicknames the avatar "Bell," which is the English meaning of her name. As Bell, she finds she can share her beautiful singing voice with the world, and as she rapidly gains popularity, she finds that internet fame is wrought with both thrilling ups and devastating downs.

Enlisting the help of her friend Hiro Betsuyaku (Jessica DiCicco), Suzu eases into her newfound popularity and begins putting on concerts while watching her alias blossom into a beloved figure in the online community. Her fans begin to refer to her as "Belle" with an E, a reference to the word that means "beautiful" in French.

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When a devastating dragon-like avatar nicknamed The Beast crashes one of Belle's hotly anticipated concerts, a group of vigilantes called the Justices, led by an avatar named Justin (Chace Crawford), accuses The Beast of inciting violence in the otherwise peaceful world of U. Belle, however, is intrigued by The Beast and goes out of her way to understand his actions, eventually befriending the misunderstood user. From there, she's led on a wild ride through the real and digital world in an effort to find the "real" Beast as well as a way to reach through to him and his dark demeanor.

Obviously, it's a Beauty and the Beast for the digital age with absolutely mind-blowingly beautiful animation, with a blend of more traditional aesthetics and CG inside of U, much like we saw in Hosoda's Summer Wars. However, as pretty as it is, it seems half-baked in more than a few areas.

Belle seems conflicted as to what kind of story it truly wants to be: a romance like the original fairy tale based on loving oneself, not judging a book by its cover, and being kind to others, or an action tale where there’s a villain for the sake of having a villain, but no real conflict beyond Suzu briefly clashing with the Justices, learning The Beast’s identity, and the consequences that come with it in real life.

And for a story that clearly wants to be a musical spectacular, most of the songs, with the exception of the effervescent “U” at the film’s opening, are syrupy ballads with no real draw. They’re beautifully sung, and even analogous to the Japanese voice cast’s singing chops, but they don’t feel particularly memorable or important to the moments they’re attached to.

That’s not to say the entire adventure is disappointing. There are a few satisfying high points, mostly in the way that the movie handles some of its lesser characters. In fact, many of Belle's triumphs come in the form of surprising friendships and interactions. Suzu's unexpected bond with her beautiful and popular schoolmate Ruka Watanabe (Hunter Schafer) bucks convention entirely. It demonstrates to us that there's still very much room, even in a "mousy" girl's life, for meaningful friendships when she begins to realize that she is worthy of others’ time and puts herself out there.

There are some other truly heartfelt moments that arise as Belle begins to coast toward its ending. The manner in which The Beast's true identity is eventually revealed may be difficult to watch, but it also manages to subvert expectations in that it both shines light on a harrowing real-life subject and feels like a more realistic alias reveal than what we typically see in anime series and films. If you’re expecting feelings to blossom between certain characters that eventually culminates in a kiss at the end of the movie, you’ll definitely come away from the experience satisfied with the direction the film ultimately went in.

The Best Anime of 2021

Unfortunately, these bright points alone can’t carry the film in its entirety. Though it works hard to endear Suzu and Belle to us, there's little in the way of reasons to care about her the way Hosoda clearly intended. Suzu has a troubled past, and dealing with her mother’s death has been hard on her. Still, it’s insinuated that she’s well-liked by her peers, has a clearly supportive father, and a plucky-but-determined best friend, and a childhood crush who wants to be more. Still, she spends all her time crying and scurrying away from her problems.

And one day, she simply stops. That’s where the issues lie. The “transformation” into Belle is so quick and without substance that we don’t really see Suzu’s growth into this larger-than-life digital figure. Instead, we see her standing in U from the film’s very beginning, singing her heart out as this gorgeous, pink-haired siren with millions of eyes on her, with virtually no interaction with the avatars who flock to her flashy concerts. And we’re left with so many unanswered questions in the end. Why is Belle so popular? Where did the songs she sings come from? Does she interact with fans? Who sets up the beautiful visuals in U? Did she really see no income from the music she created and shared with the world since Hiro routed all of her earnings to charity? The list goes on.

Belle’s message is obvious: Suzu’s digital avatar has given her the courage she needed to sing again and to be herself, to bring the light back into her life that’s been missing since she lost her mother. As Belle, she can share the kindness in her heart with others, even if she has to do it in a virtual world at first. The film just doesn’t try hard enough to fill in the blanks from Suzu’s initial foray into U or how she realizes she can use her talent to touch lives. It mostly fails to illustrate how Suzu learned the lessons she did along the way or why it was important to apply them beyond reaching out to the much-maligned Beast.

As a result, Belle as a digital pop star and the lives she touches through her music is believable, but the entire song and dance feels more hollow than meaningful.

Belle is a gorgeously animated, futuristic interpretation of Beauty and the Beast that combines dazzling song and eye-popping visuals for a well-meaning yet meandering modern fairy tale. Unfortunately, its heartfelt message is muddled by perplexing plot holes, occasionally grating characters, and a bloated runtime.

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‘Belle’ Review: Soaring and Singing Over the Online Rainbow

In this gorgeous anime, a high school student journeys into a virtual world and finds herself amid cute, kooky and menacing fellow users.

By Manohla Dargis

Colors and hearts explode in “Belle,” and your head might too while watching this gorgeous anime. Set in the undefined future, it envisions a reality that resembles our own, with the same drab institutions and obligations, the same confusing relationships and feelings. Suzu (voiced and sung by Kaho Nakamura), a melancholic high school student, lives with her father (Koji Yakusho) and still mourns her long-dead mother. Suzu exists in a miasma of grief, one she fleetingly escapes by entering a computer simulation.

Described as “the ultimate virtual community” and cleverly named U, this other-world is an entertainment but also a refuge. A dazzling phantasmagoria, it allows customers to log out of their reality by slipping into an avatar in the U space. Once inside, users — their real selves obscured by eccentric, sometimes aspirational cartoonish identities — have seemingly unfettered freedom. They can cut loose, bop around like tourists, become someone else or maybe find themselves. “You can’t start over in reality,” Suzu hears when she first fires up the program, “but you can start over in U.” The catch? Everyone is still on social media.

Journeys of self-discovery dominate much of contemporary animated cinema, even if the routes and mileage vary. “It’s time to see what I can do/To test the limits and break through,” as Elsa sings in “Frozen.” Suzu’s pilgrimage is somewhat complicated — certainly visually — but she too needs to “let it go” and cut free of her past and her trauma, an agony that the story doesn’t soften. Suzu is unequivocally, openly sad. Her shoulders sag and her head bows, she blunders and shrinks from others, sighing and weeping. Even so, she also questions, searches and keeps trying to sing. She lost her voice to grief; she wants it back.

Suzu is a poignant, sympathetic figure but there’s a welcome edge to her, a bit of stubborn prickliness that’s expressed through the animation, the character’s churning emotions and Nakamura’s sensitive, expansive vocal performance. The character design employs the pert nose, heart-shaped face and huge eyes that are standard in anime, but these conventions never feel static because Suzu isn’t. Delicately perched on that unstable boundary between childhood and adulthood, she slips from the comically juvenile (mouth agape) to soberly mature. She can seem younger or older than she is, but she’s never less than human.

Before you meet her, though, the writer-director Mamoru Hosoda introduces U’s virtual reality, giving you a seductive eyeful. (His movies include “ Mirai ” and “Wolf Children.”) The first image in “Belle” is of a thin, pale horizontal line cutting across the otherwise black frame, a visual that wittily suggests the first line in a drawing. This line rapidly changes and, as it does, the contours of the U world emerge, as do its mysteries, oddities, personalities and possibilities. At first, the line seems to consist of a series of rectangular shapes that look like beads on a necklace, a design that amusingly evokes the spaceship in “2001: A Space Odyssey” — and then it explodes into the kaleidoscopic realm of science fiction and U.

A rapturously beautiful expanse filled with whirling candy colors and charming character designs, U gives Suzu a virtual reality escape and gives you a great deal to go gaga over. That introductory straight line soon expands, growing evermore complex and giving way to intricate geometric forms. As the shapes shift and mutate, Hosoda uses old-fashioned perspective — differing sizes and planes, parallel edges and vanishing points — to create an illusion of movement through depth. That’s crucial for the user (and viewer) experience in U, where rectangles turn into what look like parts of a motherboard only to then transform into mazelike spaces that give way to soaring buildings in a crowded modern cityscape.

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‘belle’: film review | cannes 2021.

Mamoru Hosoda, a master of emotional Japanese anime ('Wolf Children', 'Mirai'), invents a glittering virtual universe in which a shy teenager becomes a music idol.

By Deborah Young

Deborah Young

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Perhaps the most ambitious film to date by Japanese animator Mamoru Hosoda, which he himself describes as “the one I’ve been waiting to make,” Belle alternates between a quiet little town where its painfully insecure heroine lives and an exciting, wildly imaginative futureworld that takes your breath away with its beauty. Unfortunately, this enchanting virtual universe is only an Internet pipe dream where people take refuge in idealized avatars to escape the pain of the real world.

Bowing in the Cannes Premieres section before a world rollout later in the year, Belle has the look of a winner for the teen set. The visuals are often astounding, filled with breathless mid-flight battles and spectacular scenes of giant whales swimming in a liquid sky, which would have been called psychedelic in grandpa’s day. In this fantasy world, drugs have been replaced by gaming avatars as the escape mechanism of preference, and they seem to serve much the same purpose in removing the mind from reality. And yet Hosoda also sees some positive benefits in Internet and its ever-changing technology, perhaps as therapy for the repressed who need encouragement to bring their beautiful inner selves out of hiding.

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Venue: Cannes Film Festival (Cannes Premieres) Cast: Kaha Nakamura, Koji Yakusho, Lilas Ikuta, Ryo Narita, Shota Sometani, Tina Tamashiro Director/screenwriter: Mamoru Hosoda

Though constructed around teenage neurosis, which can get pretty grim at times, Belle (whose original Japanese title is Belle: Ryu to Sobakasu no Hime ) is an immersive experience for anyone willing to give anime a try. As in all of Hosoda’s work, the family is at the heart of real-life drama and the source of his films’ emotional climaxes, like the unforgettable finale of Wolf Children in which a mother lets go of her son.

Here the traumatic loss is of the mother herself when Suzu (voiced by Kaha Nakamura) was a small girl. On an excursion, the mother plunges into a raging river to save a child and loses her own life in the process. Suzu, now a freckled schoolgirl of 17, has never forgiven her for abandoning her own daughter to save a stranger’s.

Her pain runs deep, and she frequently falls into self-pity and crying jags, making her a loner at school and less than an easy heroine to identify with. Things change when, with the help of her nerdish best friend Hiro, she enters the new virtual universe “U”, an Internet game that already has 5 billion players. It has been created by the Five Voices, a mysterious group of savants who are later humorously unveiled.

Under a sky-high dome filled with funny little flying avatars (from a distance they’re so numerous they look like swarms of insects), a stunning girl appears with champagne pink hair down to her waist, singing haunting songs from the back of a floating whale. This Barbie-like incarnation is Belle, the idol of U, who has replaced a certain Peggy Sue as numero uno with the likes. Naturally, everyone wonders who this glamorous creature is, little suspecting Belle’s “biometric information” has been uploaded from plain Jane schoolgirl Suzu. Back in everyday reality, Suzu is frightened by the haters who viciously attack her avatar, though Hiro assures her they are a necessary part of becoming a superstar.

Yet despite Belle’s enormous success, nothing seems to change for Suzu; she still gets tongue-tied and blushes fire-engine red in front of Shinabu (Ryo Narita), a boy who recognizes her fragility and tries to protect her, and she envies Luka, the prettiest and most popular girl in her class. After these dips into bleak reality with the world’s clumsiest teenager, one eagerly awaits her return to virtual fairyland, where she will become the compassionate Belle and grow up.

Belle is just about to sing in a mega-concert in front of her billions of adoring fans when a dark figure appears in the dome, a monstrous beast with the face of a wild boar and very aggressive manners. This unhappy intrusion in the perfect world whistles up a pack of flying superheroes called the Justices, led by the powerful blond Justin. Wittily, Hosoda makes these arrogant white-clad vigilantes the bad guys. As for the Beast, a chorus of tiny kids declare they’re rooting for him because they like bad boys.

Belle, too, senses there’s a beautiful person inside the Beast’s fearsome, bruised exterior and follows a trail that leads to his hidden castle. There they act out the Beauty and the Beast theme, until Justin finds them. The angry superhero threatens to use his green ring to “unveil their origins” and ban them forever from U.

The film’s final act is a tense countdown to save two human boys from their evil father — the same kind of unexpected reversal we have seen with Justin and the Beast. While it brings the whole cast together and shifts the action back and forth between reality and U, it feels like a drop in the brilliant imagination that precedes it. But the film recovers its emotional peak in the last sequence, when Suzu breaks through her traumas and reveals to the world the fine person she really is.

The classic artwork of Suzu’s small town immersed in nature contrasts in every way to the futuristic CGI of U, challenging the viewer to choose between them. Ludvig Forssell and Yuta Bando’s music binds the scenes together, swelling in a series of emotional crescendos that are Hosoda’s trademark.

Full credits

Venue: Cannes Film Festival (Cannes Premiere) Production company: Studio Chizu Voice cast: Kaha Nakamura, Koji Yakusho, Lilas Ikuta, Ryo Narita SHINABU, Shota Sometani KAMISHIN, Tina Tamashiro LUKA, Toshiyuki Morikawa, Fuyumi Sakamoto, Kejiro Tsuda JELLINEK, Mami Koyama Director, screenwriter: Mamoru Hosoda Producers: Yuichiro Saito, Genki Kawamura, Nozamu Takahashi, Toshimi Tanjo Animation director: Hiroyuki Aoyama Production designers: Anri Jojo, Eric Wong Music: Ludvig Forssell, Yuta Bando World sales: Charades (in the U.S. GKids)

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Mamoru Hosoda’s Beauty and the Beast riff Belle argues for optimism about the internet

In this maximalist anime movie, a tale as old as time uploads to virtual reality

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This review was originally published in conjunction with Belle ’s theatrical debut in American release. It has been updated and republished for the film’s digital and streaming release.

The kid-friendly moral of Beauty and the Beast (or at least the 1991 Disney version) is a simple one: “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” With the ambitious, decisively uncynical new anime movie Belle , writer-director Mamoru Hosoda adds to a long list of adaptations by updating the story for the internet age. Carefully fabricated online personas replace magical curses, and enchanted singing candlesticks transform into mewling AIs. But the director of Mirai and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time pushes the core message one step further by emphasizing how connection is a two-way street. It isn’t enough to recognize someone else’s true self without offering vulnerability in return. Produced by Hosoda’s Studio Chizu, this lush, spectacularly animated vision argues for the life-changing bonds that can develop when people shed their digital defenses.

Belle takes place in a near-future where a virtual-reality platform called U dominates the global consciousness. Singer Kaho Nakamura stars as Suzu, a shy provincial teen still grieving the death of her mother, who drowned rescuing a child from a flooding river. Suzu and her mom shared a love of music, and since the traumatic incident, Suzu has panic attacks when she tries to sing. She only regains confidence and her voice when she enters U as an avatar named Belle. With the help of her mischievous hacker friend Hiro (Lilas Ikuta), she inadvertently becomes a viral pop idol in the process.

For Suzu, U’s appeal is its capacity for reinvention — the virtual world promises escapism in the form of anonymity. (The platform’s ultimate punishment for wrongdoing is “Unveiling,” where an avatar is stripped away and the user behind it is exposed to the world.) When a misbehaving user known as the Dragon (Takeru Satoh) crashes one of Belle’s concerts, pursued by a group of warriors determined to Unveil him, Belle sets out to discover his secret.

The story of a shy girl finding her voice sounds predictable, but Belle takes the idea into surreal territory. This is a film that features a floating pop diva shedding crystals from atop a neon whale covered with speakers . The animation serves up a vivid feast for the eyes throughout, and a seamless integration of styles deepens Belle ’s world-building. Glossy 3D CG animates U, while the real world is illustrated in Hosoda’s familiar traditional style.

Designed by renowned Disney animator Jin Kim, Belle resembles the studio’s quintessential princess, with a waifish face and impossibly big blue eyes. Suzu, on the other hand, looks like a typical cartoonish anime heroine, signaling the tension between her online and real selves. The Dragon cuts a twisted figure. A selling feature of U is its use of biometric data to link users’ actual bodies with their digital avatars, and the bruises tied to his real-life counterpart bloom across his hunched back like neon fungi.

Belle’s concerts explode in a smorgasbord of color and spectacle, but when the music switches off, U feels limitless but lonely. Designed by London architect Eric Wong, the omni-directional city lives in a near-perpetual twilight. Expansive Inception -style stacked buildings overwhelm the screen, but all their yellow windows are vacant. Adding to U’s amalgamation of ideas, Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon ( Wolfwalkers ) contributed background work to the storybook-esque lands surrounding the Dragon’s crumbling castle.

Many of the castle’s details are drawn with white outlines, making the glitchy building look like it’ll flicker out of existence any second. The virtual platform is a fascinating curiosity in Belle , although it’s never made clear how non-viral stars spend their time in U, or how one control-obsessed vigilante hijacked the creators’ powers to expose users’ identities. Perhaps intentionally, though, the real world offers a more compelling place to stay. Lingering shots of the natural world and a warm array of details, like the faded inspirational Post-It notes on Suzu’s wall, or her three-legged dog, all make Suzu’s life feel lived-in.

And Suzu is struggling through that life. Her name means “bell” in English, but as her mom’s old choir points out, she’s more like a bell cricket hiding in the shadows. She struggles to relate to her dad and classmates. The latter emotional distance gets rendered physically by the long bus and train journey Suzu makes every day to get to school. She’s surrounded by empty chairs the whole journey. Loneliness is part of her routine. Hosoda makes this consideration of space explicit, with frequent wide shots of Suzu walking home alone. Similarly, as Suzu recalls her mother’s death, the young girl her mom rescues first appears in another wide shot against total blackness. Highlighting the girl’s isolation sets up parallels between Suzu’s decision to help the Dragon with her mom’s own choice.

Such shot compositions could start to feel on the nose, but Hosoda offers a point of contrast by using the same technique to emphasize closeness. Washed in fuzzy brushstrokes, Suzu’s memory with her childhood protector Shinibou (Ryō Narita) shows the pair clustered together, surrounded by soft yellow. When Belle later bonds with the Dragon during a dance homage to the Disney film, the pair flow up together against an expanse of empty sky. The two moments have completely opposite color palettes, getting at the idea that these attachments can form both offline and on.

Hosoda’s work often considers what it means to exist in two different spaces, by playing with separate timelines and realities. Even his film Wolf Children intertwined this theme by considering the dual identities of its werewolf leads. With near-identical opening sequences, Belle ’s premise feels like the updated version of Hosoda’s Summer Wars , another virtual-reality story that warns against over-integrating technology through an apocalyptic scenario. In Belle , though, the stakes are much more intimate and grounded in character growth. The fate of the universe doesn’t rest on Suzu’s shoulders; all that matters is whether she can get through to one person who needs help. The film’s climax hinges on her reconciling the disconnect between her two selves to be able to truly open up.

The idea that people online only advertise the parts of themselves they want others to see isn’t novel. Neither is the revelation that anonymity breeds spite. At times, Belle ’s depiction of online judgment via overlapping dialogue and chat bubbles feels trite. Hosoda knows better than to attribute all our worst instincts solely to the internet, though. One of the film’s most inventive sequences shows Suzu quelling vicious school gossip through targeted responses, which Hosada visualizes as if she’s conquering countries in a Risk -esque hexagonal game board. The message is clear: Rumors travel whatever way they can. “The world is the same everywhere,” Suzu sighs.

Hosoda also grounds the eventual reveals about the Dragon in real life, which leads to an abrupt final-act tonal shift that he doesn’t quite pull off. What seems intended as a message of courage comes out as a misguided statement about conquering impossible situations through resilience. Given the delicate subject matter, the story ends on an unsettling note.

Still, the core of the movie is about empathy, and Hosoda’s sentimentality is compelling, even at its most overstated and earnest. Belle doesn’t shy away from online toxicity, but it advocates for a hopeful perspective on the ways the internet can connect people in meaningful, supportive ways. Hosoda deeply wants to believe that online interactions can be used for good. Because if not, what else could all this relentless online misery possibly be for?

Belle is now available for digital rental on platforms like Amazon , Vudu , and others.

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Review: ‘Belle’ is a striking virtual reality riff on ‘Beauty and the Beast’

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“Belle,” a dazzling new anime from the Japanese director Mamoru Hosoda , drops us into a surreal cyberscape known as “U,” where internet users hide behind outlandish avatars, enormous humpback whales float through the digital ether and a nobody can become a somebody overnight. That nobody would be Suzu (voiced by Kaho Nakamura in the original Japanese version), a moody, freckled teenager who finds herself suddenly reborn as Belle, a pink-haired, silver-voiced diva who racks up millions of followers, even as she draws the attention of a mysteriously bruised and brooding Beast. It’s a tale as old as time and as newfangled as TikTok, in which the virtual world, though packed with fantasy and artifice, can bring startling truths to the surface.

Hosoda sketches in Suzu’s pre-virtual existence early on, with a mix of present-day bustle and aching flashbacks that coalesce into a messily moving portrait of teenage malaise. We witness the terrible tragedy that scarred her childhood and the sadness and shyness that have haunted her ever since. We also learn about her love for singing, a gift she’s stifled in the midst of her near-constant anxiety and grief. All these traits — Suzu’s sensitivity, her loneliness, her musicality and, yes, her freckles — wind up shaping her avatar, Belle, thanks to the wonders of U’s groundbreaking “body-sharing technology,” which draws directly on a user’s physical and psychological makeup. In other words, Belle isn’t just a mask; she’s a striking reflection of who Suzu is, as well as a portal into an intense new plane of existence. Like all U avatars, she provides both concealment and revelation.

If that sounds like a somewhat idealized view of technology, well, it is. Hosoda’s virtual reality conceit may hail from a still-distant future, but he isn’t in a particularly dystopian mood. Technology has its pitfalls, of course, as the movie demonstrates with light dollops of social media satire. As Belle becomes U’s newest celebrity, she brings out all manner of online trolls: knee-jerk cynics, jealous rivals and many others who dislike the songs she sings and dismiss her as an attention hog. (Suzu is horrified to have so many haters, but her tech-whiz best friend, Hiroka, sets her straight: “If you only get compliments, you only have hard-core fans,” she notes. “In U, stardom is built on mixed reception.”)

Suzu must also deal with everyone’s curiosity over who Belle really is, and she clings tightly to the anonymity that has paradoxically enabled her to shine so bright. She isn’t the only one keeping her identity a secret, of course, and in that respect, the extravagantly stylized world of U isn’t all that different from Suzu’s small-town high school, where she’s one of many hiding their feelings in plain sight. Masks proliferate in “Belle,” not all of them strictly virtual; in a flurry of romantic-comedy subplots, we meet a number of Suzu’s classmates, who turn out to have unspoken desires and anxieties of their own. (They lend the story some sweet emotional heft, as do the choir ladies who provide Suzu with moral support.)

But the most troubling mask is worn by U’s Public Enemy No. 1, a sharp-fanged, dark-maned, double-horned Beast also referred to as the Dragon (voiced by Takeru Satoh). Having left a trail of digital destruction in his wake, the Beast is being hunted online by vigilante forces, but it soon becomes clear that only Belle has the power to tame him. And so begins a very conscious homage to “Beauty and the Beast,” one that’s more Disney than Jean Cocteau, starting with our heroine’s choice of moniker. (She actually begins by calling herself “Bell” — “Suzu” means “bell” in Japanese — before her fans Frenchify it for her.) But Hosoda pushes his retelling of this fairy tale into significantly darker, wilder territory. At the heart of “Belle” is a harrowing story of abuse and violence, of sacrifice and rescue — one that at times seems ripped-from-the-headlines topical and elsewhere feels as trippy as a “Matrix” movie, complete with death-defying, skyscraper-shattering acrobatics.

Earnest, youthful journeys into otherworldly realms are nothing new for Hosoda, whose earlier animated features include “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time,” “Summer Wars” and the 2018 charmer “Mirai.” His storytelling may leave something to be desired in terms of elegance and economy, but my interest in “Belle,” though frequently dragged hither and yon, never flagged. Despite the unwieldy narrative complications, Hosoda achieves an adroit, ultimately instructive balance of kinesis and stillness. U’s virtual arena may tilt toward sensory overload, but the time Suzu spends there is matched — and ultimately overpowered — by an everyday reality she’s spent too long eluding.

Hosoda’s backdrops, with their soft colors and photorealist details, are always gorgeous enough to get lost in, but they also tell a deeper story of community and healing. An early shot of a frustrated Suzu walking alone across a narrow bridge in coldest winter is answered by later images of her with her friends, happily framed against a warm, sun-kissed landscape. The images dancing across our screens, cinematic or virtual, may be addictive and transfixing. But as “Belle” is wise enough to acknowledge, the world that enables and inspires those images will always be a deeper wellspring of magic.

In Japanese with subtitled English and dubbed English versions Rated: PG, for thematic content, violence, language and brief suggestive material Running time: 2 hours, 1 minute Playing: Starts Jan. 14 in general release

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When he lectured on literature at Cornell University, Vladimir Nabokov referred to Jane Austen ’s 1814 novel " Mansfield Park " as a "fairy tale," a term he did not use disparagingly. He also obliquely noted that none of its fairy-tale romantic doings would have been possible were its characters not somewhat affluent, and that the source of the money that affords the characters their modes of living is "cheap slave labor." The observation is a bracing one. But it’s true that the economic system that guaranteed the incomes of the moneyed characters in Austen’s world was a criminal one, even if Austen herself remained neutral on the topic. And it is uncomfortable to think that the template for the rom-com was built on...well, do I have to spell it out for you? The new movie "Belle," which claims, like so many such efforts, to be based on actual events, is a novel work in that it takes on a topic not regularly treated in period drama, that is, the necessarily fraught place of a free black woman in proper British society in the late 18th/early 19th centuries.

Directed by Amma Asante from a script by Misan Sagay , "Belle" tells the story of an illegitimate mulatto child, daughter of a Royal Navy man, who’s raised in affluence, lavishly educated, and rather condescendingly doted upon by the extended family her father foisted her upon. Once the girl, named Belle by her father but called Dido by her uncle and aunts, reaches adulthood (at which point she is incarnated by the lovely and capable young actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw ), her marriage prospects seem...well, unusual. Good thing she’s got a guaranteed income, something her white not-exactly-sister Elizabeth ( Sarah Gadon ) does not, for reasons that a thorough reader of Jane Austen novels could probably guess at correctly.

As it happens, Dido’s uncle Lord Mansfield ( Tom Wilkinson ) is a judge, and in the main part of the film’s story, he’s hearing a case involving a slave ship and the question of whether human beings can be insured like cargo. Dido hears about the case in dribs and drabs, and then in more detail from a neighbor, a passionate vicar’s son ( Sam Reid ) who’s under Lord Mansfield’s tutelage, at least until they have a violent disagreement on the main issue of the case. Dido’s consciousness grows, as does her attraction to the vicar’s son. But at the same time, Dido’s aunts, played by Emily Watson and Penelope Wilton , seek to steer Dido into an engagement with Oliver Ashford (James Norton), son of a very scheming grand dame ( Miranda Richardson , of course) and younger brother to a bug-eyed bigoted quasi-rotter ( Tom Felton , who seems not at all concerned by the fact that he’s lately being cast as a Draco Malfoy For All Seasons).

The movie is intelligently written and well-acted, but it doesn’t sit all that comfortably between the two stools of Austenesque Romance and Socially Conscious Drama. Although director Asante herself is a woman of color her shooting style is as conventional as any veteran director you can, or can’t, name. Take the whole opening sequence, for instance, in which a sense of intrigue and drama is (putatively) built in a series of shots in which no faces are seen, merely feet and ankles taking strides, the backs of heads moving forward, hands opening carriage doors, and so on. All very stock, all very expected, at least if you’ve seen such montages as many times as I. So while "Belle" is of undeniable interest in some respects, its overall execution restricts it from being as engaging as it wants to be, and as wrenching as perhaps it ought. 

Glenn Kenny

Glenn Kenny was the chief film critic of Premiere magazine for almost half of its existence. He has written for a host of other publications and resides in Brooklyn. Read his answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Film credits.

Belle (2014)

Rated PG for thematic elements, some language and brief smoking images

105 minutes

Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Dido Elizabeth Belle

Tom Wilkinson as Lord Mansfield

Miranda Richardson as Lady Ashford

Sarah Gadon as Elizabeth

Sam Reid as John Davinier

Matthew Goode as Captain Sir John Lindsay

Emily Watson as Lady Mansfield

Tom Felton as James Ashford

Penelope Wilton as Lady Mary Murray

• Amma Asante
• Misan Sagay

Cinematography

• Ben Smithard

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Review: 'Belle' is a ravishing experience for audiences of all ages

The film is a reimagining of "Beauty and the Beast."

Shortlisted for the Oscar for best animated film, "Belle" -- now in theaters -- reimagines the tale of "Beauty and the Beast" through the prism of a virtual reality in which a shy, lonely teen, Suzu, becomes a pop singing sensation named Belle and befriends a beast no one else understands.

Thanks to Japanese anime master Mamoru Hosoda, "Belle" is a knockout fantasia that cuts to the core of Generation Z lives that revolve around digital technology. The film, available in Japanese with subtitles or dubbed in English, speaks a universal language of love and loss.

And cheers to "Belle" for being unapologetically girlcentric -- look, it worked like gangbusters for "Frozen." You can feel the alienation of 17-year-old Suza (beautifully voiced by Kaho Nakamura and in English by Kylie McNeill) as she goes through her days in rural Japan.

Though the freckle-faced Suzu has a bestie in computer nerd Hiroka (Lilas Ikura) and a crush on Shinobu (Narita Ryô), she has basically drifted and stopped singing since the traumatic death of her beloved mother, who perished trying to save the life of a drowning boy.

MORE: Review: 'In the Heights' pure unleashed joy grabs you and never lets go

The only escape Suzu finds is entering the metaverse of "U," where 5 million users congregate as avatars crafted from their individual biometric programs. It's inside "U" that Suzu morphs into Belle, a pretty-in-pink, pop princess (the freckles remain), which frees the timid Suzu to sing her heart out and capture the attention of the world.

It's a guarantee that the visionary miracles Hosoda creates will knock your eyes out. Alive with color and characters that represent a world of diversity and dazzle -- get a load of the whale festooned with speakers that play Belle's music -- the movie brims over with surprises.

Though "U" neg-heads will take down anyone for clicks and more followers, Hosoda never takes the easy out of condemning the digiverse as a dangerous escape that functions like a drug for troubled youth. For Hosoda, "U" can also connect outsiders to their best impulses.

MORE: 'Cruella' review: Emma Stone and Emma Thompson deliver much to enjoy in this beautifully crafted fluffball

Case in point: the meeting of Belle and the Dragon, the so-called Beast who ruins her public concert and incurs the wrath of a vigilante group led by Justin (Toshiyuki Morikawa ceding to Chace Crawford in the English version). The group destroys the Dragon's castle, leaving Suzu/Belle to save him if she can learn his real identity before his enemies strike again.

Since this review is a spoiler-free zone, I refuse to unveil secrets except to say that Belle's search leads her to two brothers who are being beaten by their abusive father. Her attempt at rescue leads Suzu to finally understand why her mother tried to save that drowning boy.

In the film's most moving scene, when Belle is unveiled as Suzu, the real girl behind the avatar comes forward to sing in her own voice. Corny? Maybe. But also thrilling. Hosodo never comes on too strong with his life lessons. That's what makes "Belle" a ravishing experience for audiences of all ages who learn the value of thinking for themselves.

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Beautiful 'Belle' tells a touching true story

A handsome period piece with hints of Jane Austen and the polish of Downton Abbey , Belle (*** out of four; rated PG; opening Friday in New York and Los Angeles) is more than just a sumptuous romance.

It tackles slavery, racism and sexism as it delves into the real-life story of Dido Elizabeth Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), the illegitimate mixed-race daughter of British Captain Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode).

After her mother, an African slave, dies in 1769, her English father embraces the young Dido (Lauren Julien-Box) and takes her to the estate of his aristocratic uncle, Lord Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson). He pleads with his relatives to look after his child while he is serving in the Royal Navy. Initially flummoxed, they agree to raise her.

While he claims to love Dido as one of his own and admires her keen intelligence, Lord Mansfield, who is also Britain's Chief Justice, will not allow Dido to join the family when they dine with guests. She is separate, and not entirely equal.

Lord Mansfield and Lady Mansfield (Emily Watson) are childless, but have also taken great-niece Elizabeth (Sarah Gadon), whose widowed father re-married and abandoned her. The girls grow up closely as sisters and have a deep affection for one another.

When the father she has rarely seen dies and leaves Dido his fortune, it puts her in a unique position. She will have lifelong financial stability and need not rely on a man to support her, as was the custom of the day.

Elizabeth, who has no fortune, must marry and is determined to claim the attentions of a potential suitor, the sneering James (Tom Felton). His older brother Oliver (James Norton) is pushed by his calculating mother Lady Ashford (Miranda Richardson) to woo Dido for her fortune. The unremitting villainy of Felton's character rivals his role as evil Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter series and undercuts some of the film's subtler, more effective scenes.

Lord Mansfield is about to adjudicate one of the most important cases of his career: the massacre aboard the Zong slave ship, in which 142 sick African slaves being transported to England are thrown overboard. His judgment in the case has far-reaching implications and could lead to the national abolition of slavery. Doing his best to sway the judge's decision is the local parson's son and aspiring lawyer John Davinier (Sam Reid), who is clearly drawn to Dido. He and Dido are like Austen's Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett, with an appealing romantic tension. They are increasingly drawn together in their efforts to persuade Lord Mansfield to do the right thing.

Mbatha-Raw is understated and captivating in the part, while Wilkinson, Watson and Downton's Penelope Wilton (as Lady Mary Murray, who acts as the girls' governess) give convincing performances. The layered film's blend of Austen-style romance, courtroom drama and historical look at the British slave trade works surprisingly well, though there are moments — especially involving the conniving suitors — that teeter on melodrama.

The film has elements of a Masterpiece Theater -style Cinderella story. But its dimensional portrait of proper upper-class British society calling into question its long-held convictions about status and tradition is compelling. Dido is a wealthy woman and her English "sister" Elizabeth is penniless. The notion that the rich should marry those equivalent in status and wealth is upended in Dido's case, due to that era's beliefs about race.

While elegantly appointed and unabashedly romantic, Belle tackles the issue of slavery with appropriate gravity and also raises important questions about the era's limited options for women.

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A Lot or a Little?

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Beauty is about who you are on the inside. Curiosi

Several characters act out of a moral responsibili

Characters are all Japanese. Female characters are

Implied child abuse. A terrified child sees a pare

Several crushes.

"Damn." "Hell." Name-calling, including "idiot," "

Parents need to know that Belle is a coming-of-age anime fantasy that retells the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale in a slightly futuristic setting. Available both in the original Japanese (with subtitles) and in a dubbed version, it delicately deals with several big issues within a family, including …

Positive Messages

Beauty is about who you are on the inside. Curiosity is important. There's a certain freedom in the anonymity of digital worlds.

Positive Role Models

Several characters act out of a moral responsibility to protect others, including strangers, even if they put themselves at risk. Many examples of what it means to be a good friend.

Diverse Representations

Characters are all Japanese. Female characters are shown to be brave, brainy, and heroic.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Implied child abuse. A terrified child sees a parent perish in front of her (the death itself and body aren't shown, but it's clear what happens). Adult intimidates and threatens kids. Deep scratch bleeds. Rage. In a digital world, avatars attack and fight one another, but it's understood there's no real-life threat.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"Damn." "Hell." Name-calling, including "idiot," "loser," "old fart," "scumbag," etc. Jokes about crushes being age-inappropriate.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Belle is a coming-of-age anime fantasy that retells the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale in a slightly futuristic setting. Available both in the original Japanese (with subtitles) and in a dubbed version, it delicately deals with several big issues within a family, including ( spoiler alert ) loss, grief, abandonment, and abuse. None of those incidents are actually depicted, but kids are shown being threatened, and one receives a bloody scratch. Main character Suzu (voiced by Kaho Nakamura and Kylie McNeill) is still grappling with the past trauma of her mother's death, and her sadness has left her alienated from most of her classmates over the years. With the encouragement and support of her best friend, she finds comfort (and eventually strength) by re-creating herself as a beautiful avatar in a virtual environment, emboldened by her anonymity there. Themes include curiosity and beauty coming from who you are inside. Expect some name-calling ("idiot," "loser," "old fart," "scumbag," etc.) and a use of "damn," as well as jokes about possibly age-inappropriate crushes. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Based on 7 parent reviews

Slow, plot holes, inappropriate for young kids.

Belle retold for teen audiences, what's the story.

Still hurting from her mother's tragic death about a decade earlier, timid teen Suzu (voiced by Kaho Nakamura in Japanese and Kylie McNeill in the English dub) joins U, a virtual playground that promises users they can be whoever they want. Creating a beautiful avatar whose appearance shares only her trademark freckles, Suzu becomes BELLE, an uninhibited singer and fashion icon who becomes the most popular personality in the digital universe. When a troublemaking beast known as The Dragon disrupts her online concert, Suzu and her best friend, Hiro (Ikura, Jessica DiCicco), are curious about why he's so angry and set out to learn more.

Is It Any Good?

Vibrantly spectacular, this anime movie imaginatively retells the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale as a humorous, heartfelt story of empowerment and self-discovery. In real life, Suzu is emotionally fragile teen dealing with the trauma of significant loss. In U, a social media metaverse, she can live a different life with the avatar and persona she creates. For viewers who, like Suzu, have difficulty expressing themselves face to face, U is a fantasy within a fantasy. It's vicariously exciting to watch Suzu become a sought-after celebrity (who still retains her anonymity) and see her confidence develop. We all want to be seen, appreciated, and celebrated for what we can offer the world, and kids in particular often feel insignificant or dismissed in the world of adults.

Director Mamoru Hosoda 's film is absolutely phenomenal, but it takes a bit of a turn in the third act. Suzu takes "real world" actions that defy belief. Hiro, a computer whiz, suddenly starts pulling off feats that would impress the NSA. And adult characters knowingly allow Suzu to travel far away, alone, and into a dangerous situation. The thrill from watching a breathtaking work of perfection starts to lose a bit of steam -- at least, that's how adults and critics may see it. But for kids, Suzu finishes her journey in a way that may continue to bolster their own dreams of strength and independence. Can we ask for a more beautiful experience?

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how Suzu's curiosity led her to be a force for good. What's the difference between following your curiosity and "being nosy"? Why is curiosity an important character strength ?

What alternate persona would you create if you could "start over" in a digital, anonymous world? Do you think people already do this online, on YouTube, or on social media ?

How does Belle reimagine Beauty and the Beast ? How do the stories compare? What fairy tale can you picture taking place today?

How do Suzu and her mother demonstrate courage ? In both instances where they must be brave, was there a better solution that would have kept them out of harm's way?

How do Suzu's friends and classmates show kindness, understanding, and support? Hiro can be blunt and refers to Suzu in unflattering ways, but she also creates the path to help Suzu find her way back to herself. So is she a good friend?

Movie Details

• In theaters : January 14, 2022
• On DVD or streaming : May 3, 2022
• Cast : Kaho Nakamura , Ryô Narita , Koji Yakusho , Kylie McNeill , Chace Crawford , Manny Jacinto
• Director : Mamoru Hosoda
• Inclusion Information : Asian actors
• Studio : GKIDS
• Genre : Anime
• Topics : Magic and Fantasy , Fairy Tales , Friendship , High School , Music and Sing-Along
• Character Strengths : Curiosity
• Run time : 121 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : thematic content, violence, language and brief suggestive material
• Award : Common Sense Selection
• Last updated : April 17, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Belle’ on HBO Max, an Inspired Anime Reinvention of ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ Rich With Eye Candy

Where to stream:.

• Belle (2022)

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes’ on Hulu, a Mopey Anime Teen Romance Spiffed Up With a Little Sci-fi Flavor

11 best new movies on netflix: july 2024's freshest films to watch, stream it or skip it: 'garouden: the way of the lone wolf' on netflix, an ugly, uninspired martial arts adventure, stream it or skip it: 'ultraman rising' on netflix, the most wholesome take on the classic hero yet.

Now on HBO Max , Belle finds filmmaker Mamoru Hosoda – director of Oscar nominated 2018 feature Mirai – updating Beauty and the Beast for the digital-reality/social media era. This complicated, hybrid saga debuted at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, became that year’s third-highest grossing film in Japan and was screened on IMAX screens for a while in America, a vote of confidence for its visual ambition if there ever was one. The question is whether it hews too tightly to fringey anime weirdness, or manages to cross over to audiences open to the more accessible pleasures of Studio Ghibli.

BELLE : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Five BILLION people are registered users of U, an online virtual-reality meta-world that reads your biometric whatnots and generates an avatar and persona for you. Sounds like it could be horrifying and wonderful at the same time, doesn’t it? One of the first images that sears itself into your cerebral cortex is of a massive blue whale, studded with speakers, flying through the sky, amplifying the voice of its rider, a pop singer with waist-length pink hair named Bell (voice of Kaho Nakamura). Who else could make an entrance like that? Not Gaga or Swift! Part of the allure of U is anonymity for all users, so you can pursue a whole new second life if your original one is too boring or traumatic. If all this sounds too disconcertingly dystopian and possible in our own reality, well, try not to think about it too much and maybe take a pill if your doctor gave you one and do your best to just get a decent night’s sleep, OK?

As you might expect, mass popularity and anonymity bring mountains of internet scrutiny upon Bell: Who is she, really? We know, but most everyone else in the movie doesn’t: A meek, anxious teenager named Suzu. Ironically, she’s easy to not notice on the sidewalk or in the halls at school. She had U and the Bell situation thrust upon her by her comic-relief bestie Hiroka (Lilas Ikuta), who knows the Bell secret and acts as her de-facto VR manager and publicist. Suzu’s had a rough childhood; when she was still wee, her mother died saving a drowning child, leaving Suzu to mutter inexpressively in the general direction of her father, and sometimes suffer anxiety attacks that render her physically ill. She feels alienated from former friends Shinobu (Ryo Narita), a quiet boy who once vowed to always protect her, and Ruka (Tina Tamashiro), a popular girl and saxophonist in the school band.

Another irony: Suzu used to sing, play piano and write music with her mother, but now, her singing voice is a strained rasp. She belongs to a choir with five older women who were her mother’s friends, and all show motherly concern. So U is an escape, and Bell has a concert to perform, for millions – a concert that’s interrupted by the Dragon (Takeru Satoh), a horse-faced, demon-goat-horned mysterious brooder covered in nasty bruises who frequently tangles with the Justices, self-appointed superhero types who say they keep the peace in U. His disturbance of everyone’s entertainment doesn’t go over well, and the internet mob demands to know his identity. But Bell/Suzu? She senses something about this beast. Maybe he’s just an injured soul in a monstrous body who lives in a wild castle and doesn’t quite realize he needs a dance partner.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Hosoda’s deference to 1991’s Disney Beauty and the Beast musical is readily apparent; now mix that with the anime Ghost in the Shell , Ready Player One and the sprawling inside-the-server reality of Ralph Breaks the Internet .

Performance Worth Watching: Ikuta injects her character with enough loony energy to make her vocal performance stand above the fray. (And this is as good a place as any to push the virtues of watching the corners of the screen for strange and wonderful little details – Horoda and a legion of animators frequently outdid themselves with their more-is-more approach.)

Memorable Dialogue: Disturbing disembodied computer female narrator voice for the U reality: “COME. IT’S TIME TO START ANOTHER LIFE.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Belle is a saga all right, from the tiny tears welling in the corners of eyes to its whalespout fireworks. Hosoda tries to do it all – relentless teen emo-drippiness, whammo anime action, trippy psychedelia – and the result is messy but admirable. The story is a somewhat routine traipse through grief and anxiety and all the pros and cons of the internet age; we’ve heard a lot of this before, but with significantly fewer flying cetaceans and dream castles.

It’s held aloft by its eccentricities, although there’s a nagging sensation that it should be more wildly inventive visually, or dive significantly deeper into the emotional wells of its characters. Maybe that’s silly to say, when U is populated with robot-people, nutty pixies, squidgy indefinables, Amazonian cheetah women and the like, but there’s also a familiarity here, as if the harder sci-fi stuff has been watered down so it doesn’t alienate teenage viewers. And that’s where the film might test your patience. Interpersonal revelations range from crush confessions to death acceptance, and in the third act, Hosoda tends to linger in the big puddles of FEELS long past the point of moving on, until his characters’ all-too-realistic experiences take on an air of triteness.

But Belle is ultimately a successful aesthetic crossbreed, not too out-there nor too conventional, and a near-wholesale reinvention of a classic story. Hosoda was reportedly inspired by the 1991 film, and makes reference to its unforgettable ballroom sequence; here, too, the scene acts as a thematic grounding force, one wounded soul reaching out to another from behind facades of impossible beauty and fearsome toughness. Facades made possible only by the internet and its philosophical conundrums, mind you, although Hosoda is primarily optimistic about the endeavor – never before have we been capable of reaching so long and so far to touch another person. That’s the beauty, not the beast.

Will you stream or skip the inspired anime #Belle on @netflix ? #SIOSI — Decider (@decider) May 7, 2022

Our Call: STREAM IT. Belle is visually inspired and often totally acquiver emotionally. You’ll want to take parts and leave parts, but thankfully the former more than the latter.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com .

• Prime Video
• Stream It Or Skip It

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Official Discussion - Belle [SPOILERS]

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Suzu is a shy high school student living in a rural village. For years, she has only been a shadow of herself. But when she enters "U", a massive virtual world, she escapes into her online persona as Belle, a globally-beloved singer.

Mamoru Hosoda

Kaho Nakamura as Suzu

Ryo Narita as Shinobu Hisatake

Shota Sometani as Shanjiro Chikami

Tina Tamashiro as Ruke Watanabe

Ikura as Hiroka Betsuyaku

Ryoko Moriyama as Yoshitani

Michiko Shimizu as Kita

-- Rotten Tomatoes: 95%

Metacritic: 84

VOD: Theaters

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

Bella Hadid Wears the Naked Dress to End All Naked Dresses

Anthony Vaccarello finally figured out how to reproduce his collection of ultra-sheer pantyhose dresses. Bella Hadid hit Cannes in look seven from the Saint Laurent fall 2024 show: a halter dress featuring 10 denier hosiery cups, a knotted pantyhose bodice, and a below-the-knee skirt with a control top hemline.

Hadid, styled by Molly Dickson, leaned into the Old Hollywood glamour that has become synonymous with the Cannes Film Festival, adding a pair of mahogany peep-toe ankle strap heels and an enormous pair of drop earrings from Chopard.

This look fits into Hadid’s latest sartorial M.O. of sheer earthy tones that can only be described as “sexy nymph.” While promoting her fragrance, Orebella, in New York, the model wore a diaphanous nude Dior slip dress by John Galliano, as well as a cream-colored Rokh dress with a lace bodice. And yesterday in Cannes, she further explored brown tones in a simple tank dress . But this look—with only some extremely well-placed seams preserving her modesty—is by far her boldest to date.

When asked about how he would manufacture these ephemeral pieces from the collection, Vaccarello told Vogue, “Don’t even ask me about production—I can’t tell you.” This being the first instance the delicate outfits have been spotted on the red carpet speaks to Hadid’s risk-taking style. Even if she is the only person who ever wears one of these sheer Saint Laurent looks out in the world (let’s see if she can make it to the end of the night without any snags) the fact that Vaccarello was readily willing to make one for her speaks to Hadid’s immense power in the fashion industry.

And if this is Hadid’s wardrobe for her first official day of events in Cannes? We can only imagine what’s to come.

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